The Afterlife

“Death, thou shalt die.” John Donne, Holy Sonnet X

[not to be confused with Elon Musk’s X]

Vermont | phillipwhidden.com

This is the weblink to the sonnet ⇑ this post is about.

The poet writes its last word on the page.

That word is “still.”  Some theorists will say

The sonnet waits there, year on year, an age,

But isn’t real until some readers pay

Attention to it.  Maybe sonnet lines

Lie low in comas or suspended death

Inside a post.  A reader then refines

Life, raising it like Lazarus with breath

Of Jesus.  Then the sonnet speaks again,

Or so the theory goes.  That reader dies.

The poem, still, remains, requires no brain

To fiddle with it for a new surprise.

  Long after readers fall to other spheres,

    To tombs, the sonnet, still, can cause more tears.

©  Phillip Whidden